Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that will encompass all aspects of research in the field of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery will provide a forum for the publication and free access of high quality original scientific reports documenting clinical and experimental advances in cardiac and thoracic surgery, and related fields. The intended audience is cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiothoracic anaesthesiologists, cardiologists, chest physicians, and allied health professionals.

Content overview

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery considers the following types of articles:

Research: reports of data from original research. For research articles there are two slightly different templates.

Reviews: comprehensive, authoritative, descriptions of any subject within the journal's scope. Opinion leaders that have been invited by the Editorial Board usually write these articles. They have an educational aim and are 2000-3000 words.

Book reviews: short summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of a book. They should evaluate its overall usefulness to the intended audience and are usually about 400 words.

Case reports: reports of clinical cases that can be educational, describe a diagnostic or therapeutic dilemma, suggest an association, or present an important adverse reaction. All case report articles should be accompanied by written and signed consent to publish the information from the patients or their guardians.

Case studies: describe a major healthcare intervention, usually from a public health perspective. Case study articles that include a rigorous assessment of the processes and impact of the intervention as well as recommendations for future interventions will be considered favourably. Note that Case study articles should not describe an individual patient – authors should use the case report format for such descriptions.

Commentaries: short, focused and opinionated articles on any subject within the journal's scope. These articles are usually related to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings, and are often written by opinion leaders invited by the Editorial Board. They focus on specific issues and are about 800 words.

Letters to the Editor: they can take three forms: a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article, or a substantial response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication, or an article that may not cover 'standard research' but that may be relevant to readers.

Meeting report: a short description of a conference that the author has attended. It is usually best for the article to be published as soon after the meeting as possible, and should focus on the key developments presented and discussed at the meeting. These articles are usually commissioned but reports and suggestions may also be submitted for the editors' consideration.

Study protocol: describes proposed or ongoing research, providing a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale, and methodology of the study. If the study is a randomised controlled trial it must have an International Standardised Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN).

Peer review policies

The Editors-in-Chief will decide whether submitted manuscripts are suitable for peer review. Articles that are deemed suitable for peer review will be sent to the appropriate members of the editorial board, and also external reviewers with an interest in that area. We will require the reviewers to guarantee a review within two weeks except in special cases. Based on the comments of the reviewers, the Editors-in-Chief will decide on whether to accept or reject a manuscript.

Edited by David Taggart and Vipin Zamvar, Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is supported by an international Editorial Board.

Publishing in Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery

All articles will be listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and will be covered by PubMed Central.

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery is published by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is Open Access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also in repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

BioMed Central is working closely with the Institute for Scientific Information to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery will be available.